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Early turnout shatters record in Canada polls with 7.3m ballots cast
More than 7 million Canadians have cast their ballots in advance, setting a new record for early voter turnout, Elections Canada says.
Advance polling stations were open across the country for four days, from Friday to Monday, over the Easter long weekend. Poll workers reported long lines, with two million people casting their ballots last Friday alone.
With less than one week to go before election day on 28 April, federal leaders are now in the final stretch of campaigning.
Voters will consider which party should govern the country amid an ongoing trade war with the US and President Donald Trump’s repeated comments about making Canada the 51st US state.
Elections Canada, the organisation which runs federal elections, said 7.3 million Canadians – about a quarter of eligible voters – had cast their ballots, marking a 25% increase from early votes in the previous 2021 election.
Mail-in voting is up as well, with over 754,000 returning their special ballots to the federal agency. That is more than the 660,000 that did so in 2021.
Latest polling suggests Liberals have a 5-point lead over the main opposition Conservative party, as campaigning enters its last stretch.
Liberal leader Mark Carney held events in Prince Edward Island and Quebec, while Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre had a rally in Vaughan, a suburb of Toronto, on Tuesday evening.
Carney, the former central banker of Canada and the UK, has touted his party as the best option to deal with Trump and his tariffs.
“Pierre Poilievre has no plan to stand up to President Trump,” Carney told supporters on Tuesday.
The US president has implemented blanket 25% tariffs on goods from Canada, with an exemption on products covered by the USMCA – a North American free trade deal.
Canada is also hit with global US tariffs on steel and aluminium, and cars.
The northern country does a majority of its trade with the US, and the tariffs have already resulted in thousands of temporary layoffs in Canada’s auto sector.
A win for the Liberals would mark a dramatic reversal of fortune for the party, which had been polling at just 20% when former Liberal leader and prime minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation in late January.
Their main rivals, the Conservatives, have focused their campaigning on Canadians’ desire for change following nine years of leadership under Trudeau.
At rallies and events across the country, Poilievre has honed in on issues like housing, crime and the high cost of living, while criticising the Liberals for government overspending.
“It’s time for the government to start pinching pennies,” Poilievre said on Tuesday as he unveiled his party’s platform, before adding: “We can choose change. We can choose hope. We can choose our future.”
Polls suggest the Bloc Quebecois, a party advocating for Quebec separatism that only runs candidates in the French-speaking province, is in third place, with the left-leaning New Democratic Party trailing behind in fourth.
[BBC]
United States President Donald Trump says that Iran has his administration’s proposal regarding its rapidly advancing nuclear programme as negotiations between the two countries continue.
Trump made the remarks on Friday on board Air Force One as he ended his trip to the United Arab Emirates. It is the first time he has acknowledged sending a proposal to Tehran after multiple rounds of negotiations between US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
“We’re in very serious negotiations with Iran for long-term peace,” Trump told a journalist when asked about the proposal. “We’re not going to be making any nuclear dust in Iran. I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this,” he said. “But most importantly, they know they have to move quickly, or something bad is going to happen.”
On Thursday, Araghchi spoke to journalists at the Tehran International Book Fair and said that Iran had not received any proposal from the US yet.
Araghchi also criticised what he called conflicting and inconsistent statements from the Trump administration, describing them as either a sign of disarray in Washington or a calculated negotiation strategy.
Witkoff at one point suggested that Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67 percent, then later said that all Iranian enrichment must stop.
“We are hearing many contradictory statements from the United States – from Washington, from the president, and from the new administration,” Araghchi said.
“Sometimes we hear two or three different positions in a single day.”
Araghchi later stressed that Iran will not give up uranium enrichment. “Mark my words: there is no scenario in which Iran abandons its hard-earned right to enrichment for peaceful purposes,” he wrote in a social media post.
Iranian diplomat Kazem Gharibabadi also reiterated on Friday that the right to enrich uranium is Tehran’s “absolute red line”.
Iranian and American officials have met in Oman and Rome in recent weeks for the negotiations mediated by Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, a trusted interlocutor between the two nations.
The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the US has imposed on the Islamic republic.
Trump has previously threatened to launch attacks targeting Iran’s nuclear programme if a deal isn’t reached.
Some Iranian officials have warned that Tehran could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
Separately on Friday, Iranian officials also met officials from Britain, France and Germany in Istanbul to discuss their nuclear negotiations with Washington.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, who attended the talks in the Turkish city, said in a post on X: “We exchanged views and discussed the latest status of the indirect nuclear negotiations and the lifting of sanctions.”
Gharibabadi added that if necessary, Tehran would meet with the so-called E3 – the European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal, along with China, Russia and the United States – once again to continue discussions, after several meetings since last year.
Trump had effectively torpedoed the deal during his first term by unilaterally abandoning it in 2018 and reimposing sanctions on Iran’s banking sector and oil exports.
A year later, Iran responded by rolling back its own commitments under the deal, which provided relief from sanctions in return for UN-monitored restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities.
[Aljazeera]
Roston Chase has been appointed West Indies’ new Test captain. The allrounder’s first Test as captain will be his 50th; his 49th, against South Africa in Johannesburg, came more than two years ago. West Indies have played 13 Tests since then.
Chase has previously led West Indies in one ODI and one T20I. His first assignment in the longest format will be the three-Test home series against Australia, which begins on his home ground in Bridgetown on June 25. Left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican will be Chase’s vice-captain.
The series will be the first of the 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle for both teams.
CWI said that Chase had been appointed from a shortlist of six after a “detailed assessment process that included psychometric testing to evaluate leadership style, behaviour, and overall suitability for the role”. The other candidates interviewed were John Campbell, Tevin Imlach, Joshua Da Silva, Justin Greaves, and Warrican.
Shai Hope, West Indies captain in the white-ball formats, asked not to be considered in order to focus on his exciting leadership roles.
“This selection process is one of the most comprehensive and forward-thinking we have undertaken,” CWI president, Kishore Shallow, said. “I am deeply impressed by the professionalism, objectivity, and strategic thinking that shaped the final decision. It sets a new benchmark for leadership appointments in West Indies cricket.”
West Indies head coach, Daren Sammy, said: “I fully endorse this appointment. Our new captain has earned the respect of his peers, understands the responsibility that comes with the role, and has shown the leadership qualities we need to take this team forward. I urge fans across the region to rally behind him–we’re building something special.”
The 33-year-old Chase takes over from Kraigg Brathwaite, who resigned in March after 39 matches in charge of the Test team. West Indies won 10 of those Tests, lost 22 and drew seven.
At the time of Brathwaite’s resignation, CWI had handed Hope – already West Indies’ ODI captain – the T20I reins, but had held back on naming a new Test captain, announcing that they would do so “in the coming weeks”.
Brathwaite’s tenure was notable for a young West Indies team beginning to find ways of winning in different conditions with a growing pool of fast and spin bowlers. Notable performances included a 1-0 home series win over England in 2022, the Gabba Test win of January 2024, and a 1-1 draw in Pakistan in Brathwaite’s last series in charge, in January 2025.
Chase has scored 2265 runs at an average of 26.33, with five hundreds, and taken 85 wickets with his offspin at 46.00. One of his first tasks as captain will be to repair his batting numbers, which have fallen steadily following a promising start. He made a century in just his second Test, to help save the Jamaica Test against India in 2016, and scored two more over his first 10 Tests, across which he averaged 48.53. Since then, however, his numbers have declined significantly.
CWI announced Chase’s appointment via X, formerly Twitter, and said it had been “unanimously approved by the CWI Board of Directors” during a meeting on Friday.
[Cricinfo]
Ukraine and Russia have agreed to swap 1,000 prisoners of war each after the first face-to-face talks in three years
The date for the transfer has been set, but is not being made public, Ukraine’s defence minister says
Ukraine also requested direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin – Moscow says it “noted” this request
Turkish officials, including Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, facilitated the peace talks – which both sides said included some discussion of a possible ceasefire
[BBC]
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